Kentucky’s continued decline in COVID-19 cases were a key focus during Governor Andy Beshear’s news briefing Monday — in which he noted the Commonwealth has experienced six-straight weeks of fewer cases, and seven-straight weeks of lowering positivity rate.
From Saturday through Monday afternoon, Kentucky experienced 48 new deaths attributable deaths to the coronavirus and less than 950 new cases per day, including just 568 new cases to start this week.
Beshear did note that Kentucky only had 544 new cases last Monday, 24 fewer than this Monday, but trends have only improved with each passing week.
Other positive notes for Kentucky’s battle against COVID-19: more than 200 ICU beds are now available statewide, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have decreased 10 percent in the last week, only eight kids remain in the hospital battling COVID-19, and 54 of 96 state hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages.
Meanwhile, positivity rate is down to 5.03% — the lowest it’s been in months.
Beshear notes the biggest concern, now, is that between 20-to-25% of all new COVID-19 cases Kentucky is experiencing are coming from those who are fully vaccinated — which medical officials believe lends to a waning protection from vaccinations that were administered 3-to-6 months ago.
It’s why the boosters for Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer are currently unrolling across the country, and Beshear added that 25% of those newly and recently hospitalized with COVID-19 — specifically the “Delta” variant — have also been fully vaccinated.
This has been the discussion for most of October, and those 65-and-up, anyone with underlying health conditions, and those with jobs that interact with high concentrations of people can currently get booster shots.
Beshear also noted that another big concern right now is the death rate for those aged 30-to-49. In pre-Delta stages of the virus, only 2 percent of deaths came from this demographic in Kentucky. In Post-Delta stages, however, 13 percent of deaths have come from this age group — with Beshear noting most of them unvaccinated.
Kentucky’s population with at least one vaccination is now north of 2.55 million.
Also of note in Beshear’s comments, Kentucky moved above $10 billion in active and ongoing capital job investments through these 10 months of 2021 — the highest it’s been in the state’s history.
The new industries arriving to the state will create more than 15,000 full-time jobs in the coming years, with an average incentivized hourly wage of $24.15 — a 10% increase from 2020.
The automotive industry has seen the biggest growth in this boon — with more than 7,100 full-time jobs coming in the sector.
